Report: Bolton Fired Over Contradicting President and Leaking Against Plans He Didn't Approve Of

Tucker is destroying Bolton right now.

If true, then my earlier guess that Trump was spinning things when he announced he had asked for Bolton's resignation was wrong.

Because if this is true, I have to think Trump would be inclined to demand a resignation.

Maybe Trump was building up to that and then Bolton said, "I'll offer my resignation if you want it." And Trump said "We'll talk about it tomorrow," giving himself a chance to discuss the matter, but imagining he would be taking Bolton up on that.

Barbara Boland:

In a show of power late July, a Bolton representative forced White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to deny that Trump was weighing options for Bolton’s replacement and that Mulvaney himself favored Bolton’s departure.

Yet the writing was on the wall for Bolton for some time, in part because he had a habit of leaking information to the press that would damage negotiations he didn’t agree with. The situation became so bad that Trump’s special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad reportedly refused to allow Bolton to leave the room with a copy of the nascent Afghanistan deal. That decision was followed by a flurry of pro-Bolton leaks and and anti-deal coverage in the press.

...

[I]n recent days, it appears Trump became frustrated with Bolton publicly contradicting him and scuttling his negotiations. Bolton opposed Trump’s face-to-face negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, backed an unsuccessful campaign to remove Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro from power, and promoted an aggressive stance towards Iran. The argument over the Camp David Taliban deal might have made their final break inevitable.

The author also doubts Bolton's story of offering his resignation, noting that he was expected to hold meetings today. But I don't see how that contradicts his story that he offered to resign and Trump said to wait until they could talk this morning.

It would contradict any statements from Bolton that he did resign, as opposed to offering to.

Obviously he did not resign.

Someone -- I forget who -- commented that Bolton's immediate texting to reporters about the resignation might be symptomatic of how Bolton he'd been operating for some time. That is, leaking to the press to push back against Trump.

I don't know. Just thought that speculation was interesting, given the accusations of "pro-Bolton" sources leaking to the press.

posted by Ace of Spades at 07:55 PM

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